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Originally Posted by JHikka
As much as I agree with you I think the work it would take to get something like Korean soccer or Taiwanese baseball onto TSN or SN wouldn't be worth it...the number of people tuning in would definitely be less than your standard Leafs Lunch or Americans Yelling At Each Other programs. I just don't see Asian sports properties being worth the ROI for either network for any period of time. I also don't think either network is flexible or quick enough to pick up and drop properties as they please. It could be possible for them to pick up the properties for their streaming platforms which would certainly have better ROI, but in the long-term the number of Canadians signing up for TSN streaming to watch K-League soccer is probably very, very low. We're talking about networks that lost Champions League and the EPL to DAZN - they're not going for Korean soccer. 
It's part of the reason why OneSoccer was able to snatch up Mexican and Chinese soccer rights so easily in Canada - there was simply no interest in them from TSN/SN. IIRC DAZN has the rights for soccer in Japan, France, and Spain, on top of the OneSoccer offerings. I think the Bundesliga, which is returning next Friday, is trapped in endless purgatory on Sportsnet World. |
You are probably right in that it may not be worth the time and effort of the networks to chase those Asian sports, but on the other hand things do happen quickly when circumstances change. There are always one-off events that spring up during labour disputes (I vaguely recall the Gretzky's All Stars thing during the, what was it, 1995 NHL lockout?) and those have been put together and put on TV quite quickly. I realize Korean soccer wouldn't have much lasting appeal beyond covid, but I'm sure there would be some people watching while it's the only game in town. I'd probably watch a game or two out of sheer curiosity. It's not like the Korean league would charge an arm and a leg for the rights.
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Originally Posted by wave46
I'm curious where big-tent sports networks go from here, in the age of customizing one's content.
Do they remain relevant in an age where one can just cut out the middleman and get exactly what they want? Or do they wither like network TV in the age of Netflix?
Or is their variety what saves them? You get hockey/curling in the winter and baseball in the summer, with a slice of World Cup every 4 years. Pay one cost instead of a dozen subscriptions nibbling things away.
It'll be interesting, but I don't think it portends well for smaller Canadian sports who rely on this sort of access. Kind of like how the shift to streaming hasn't exactly led to a bloom in Canadian shows - without the demand for content by Canadian networks as per Can-con, does something like Corner Gas arise again? Does the ultimate globalization of streaming kill the last vestiges of Canadiana? (excepting Quebec)
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Part of the issue with streaming is that so many of the services are hot garbage and expensive to boot. Sometimes Manitoba Moose games are streamed for free on AHL TV and it is crap... there's no way I'd be paying the sticker price for that, it's something like 80 or 100 USD a season. The WHL's streaming service is even lower quality. If I have to fork out a bunch of money and then screw around with my phone and a Chromecast box just to make it work then it should at least be good, but it isn't.